Voice of the DBA

Tag: travel

  • Three Trips

    I’m down to three trips, with most of my busy month behind me. It’s been a hard year at times, easy at others. This month I was in Vegas, LA, Atlanta, Charlotte, and Charleston, with one more trip to Vegas next week. The travel is hard, and in addition to wearing on me mentally, it compresses the rest of my time at work. That adds some stress, which bleeds over into family life for me. Some people separate well; I don’t.

    That’s OK, Despite the hard travel, I’ve enjoyed seeing so many people I know and meeting new ones. Across the 11 talks I gave this month, I enjoyed them all. I met at least one new person at each, if not more, and had some great conversations.

    Three trips left.

    The next one is SQL Intersection in Las Vegas, which will be a fun trip as my wife is coming along. Then it’s Portland for a SQL in the City seminar and a SQL Saturday in November, and a repeat in Washington D.C. in December.

    Plus vacation. I desperately need to take time off. Both for mental health, and because I’ve accumulated too much that needs to be used before the end of the year. After searching out a bit of balance last year, I didn’t do a good job this year, and need to pay more attention to things. I love my job, and I enjoy going to work, but the last month+ has been hard.

    I’m just making a note here, partly to remind you to take your own time off from work, but also to warn you I might be gone in Nov/Dec a bit from work.

     

     

  • Two Weeks to SQL Intersection

    If you haven’t made it to a conference this year, you’ve still got a great one to think about: SQL Intersection. The second installment of this conference, run by SQLskills (Kimberly Tripp and Paul Randal) takes place in two weeks. Come to Las Vegas and learn a ton about SQL Server on October 27-30.  You can register now and if you choose the SHOW package, you’ll get an XBOX One or a Surface RT.

    I spoke at this event in the spring and it was interesting. There were some amazing speakers (Brent Ozar, Kendra Little, Joe Sack, and more), which meant I didn’t have too many questions (or attendees) at my sessions. That’s OK. If I had the chance, I’d probably rather go see those speakers talk about performance rather than some of my niche topics.

    This fall I’ve redone some sessions and built new ones. Perhaps I’ll do better as I have some developer focused topics and there will be developers and hybrid technology folks at the rest of the Dev Interestion event. With ASP.NET, Visual Studio, Azure, and Sharepoint events taking place as well, perhaps I’ll get a few people to wander over as I walk about Version Control for databases along with Automated Building and Testing of your database changes. My employer, Red Gate Software, has tools and does a lot of work in this area, and while you don’t need our tools, you do want to be sure you implement these concepts in your environment.

    I’ll also be talking about branding, but tell your boss not to worry. I’m not trying to get you a new employer, but help you stand out in your current one, get a raise, or find a better job that fits what you want to do.

    It will be chilly in most of the country by late October, but it should still be beautiful in Las Vegas. If you stick around for the weekend, Halloween in the city is something to see. Come to the conference and extend it into a vacation that you’ll never forget.

    Register today for the last big SQL Server conference I’ll be at in 2013 and I hope to see you there.

  • My Busy Weekend

    This weekend is the fall camporee for my middle son’s Boy Scout troop. He’s one of the senior scouts in the group, and he’s committed to help run some of the training sessions and competitions for younger boys. He asked if I’d go along on the trip and help out, something I’m usually happy to do. However this time I had to decline, informing him that I’d be out of town this weekend. He asked me where I’d be. My answer:

    He told me that’s quite a bit of travel, and he’s right. However that’s not all of it. My journey starts today as I head to LA for SQL in the City 2013 Pasadena.

     

  • The SQL in the City Tour is Almost Here

    Five days. That’s how long I’m in Denver after my last trip before I head back to the airport for the 2013 US SQL in the City tour! Once again the crew from Red Gate is traveling around the country, putting on our one day, free, educational SQL in the City events. We are traveling to three cities in the next two weeks, and I’m looking forward to helping teach you about a variety of SQL Server topics.

    Did I mention the events are free? Completely free to you. We want you to register, but if you’re in one of these cities, and can come, click one of the register links below and I’ll see you there.

    Wed, Fri, Mon, a week long trip for me before I can return to Denver, and hopefully, some time off. I’ll need it, with a variety of talks on Version Control, Backups, and Encryption. I’m also helping with the keynotes, which makes for a busy day, repeated three times, for me. However it’s a lot of fun, and I am looking forward to meeting lots of new SQL Server professionals as I’ve never been to two of these cities.

    You should register today if you can come, it’s free, did I mention that?, and you can tell your boss we’ll teach you how to better work with SQL Server. We’ve divided the content into a mix of administrative and development based topics, so there’s something for everyone.